This means we can now create tubular looking line effects, without the need to use more complex blending techniques. Illustrator CS6 introduces the ability to apply a gradient to a stroke. Illustrator: Patterned Gradient Stroke Effect Renewed Transform panel and live shapes The renewed Transform panel contains a Rectangle Properties section that is active when you have a rectangle or rounded rectangle shape selected in We’re up to version 18 now with the Illustrator CC (2014) release. One of the applications updated in this release is Adobe Illustrator.
Illustrator CC (2014): Rectangle tool and Transform.
An added bonus of applying Global colours to your artwork means you can now much more easily apply tints of Swatch colours to your artwork, and as you edit the Swatch colour, all artwork that is associated with any tint of the colour that is applied will update to reflect the colour change.įor a visual example of the default and Global swatch colour behaviour, please also refer to the following YouTube video:.Global colours are easily recognised in the Swatches panel, as there thumbnail is marked by a small white triangle.Global means editing the swatch colour consequently updated the colour of all objects to which this colour was applied within the illustration. Before clicking OK, there’s one more step to complete: Enable the Global option in the dialog box, and (optional) name the colour.If we were to click ‘OK’ at this stage, creating a tint when applying the new Swatch colour will be difficult, and there is no link between the applied swatch colour and the swatch in the Swatches panel. You’d need to access the Color Panel, and apply the swatch colour, then whilst holding down the Shift key on the keyboard drag the colour sliders to create a lighter or darker version of the swatch colour. In the New Swatch dialog that appears, set the colour breakdown.From the Swatches panel menu choose New Swatch.Display the Swatches panel (Window > Swatches).Defining colours in Illustratorįirst let’s add a new colour swatch in Illustrator: Let’s have a look at how we can define Swatch colours in such a way that both of these issues are resolved. Although you can use the Color panel, and press Shift-key whilst dragging the sliders, the colour that is created is in no way associated with the original Swatch colour. Creating tints or shades of the colours when applying the default Swatch colours is difficult.This means that changing the colour settings for a referenced swatch colour has no effect at all on the artwork that once referenced this colour. When you apply the default colour swatches in Illustrator to your artwork, the swatch colour is not associated with the swatch in the Swatches panel.There are two issues with the default settings when defining new colour swatches in Illustrator: How can I make a tint for a colour in Adobe Illustrator? It’s a question I’m asked regularly by Illustrator users.